SUDHIR GUPTA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since in the above-captioned three petitions, quashing of Criminal Complaint Case No.152/2000 titled "Securities & Exchange Board of India v. M/s. Ideal Hotels & Industries Ltd. & Anr." and summoning order of 29th March, 2000 is sought on identical grounds, therefore, with the consent of learned counsel for the parties, these three petitions were heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

(2.) Petitioners-Sudhir Gupta and Prakash Gupta are the Directors of M/s. Ideal Hotels & Industries Limited whereas petitioner-Sudhir Gupta is the Director of M/s. Fidelity Finvest Pvt. Ltd. Petitioners claim parity with their co-accused-Vinod Kumar and Pankaj Goyal, who have been discharged by Sessions Court vide order of 24th July, 2002. The three grounds upon which quashing of the complaint in question and summoning order is sought by petitioners are as under: -

(3.) The factual background is as under: - SEBI received a complaint dated 27.6.96 from one Mr. Vijay Miglani alleging that on the instructions of M/s. Ideal Hotels and Industries Ltd. some broker purchased its shares and huge deliveries were kept outstanding in the grey market. An anonymous complaint was also received in October, 1996 alleging price rigging and insider trading in the script. After the investigation it was revealed that the price and script of Accused No.1 moved from a low of Rs.11.25 to 23.25 within 3 days and then got reduced to Rs. 17 after 1 month. The traded volume of the script was unusually high during 30.1.96 to 29.2.96 with daily turnover of 1,00,000 shares on many days in Delhi Stock Exchange.